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Thursday, December 29, 2016

I don't save packs

I received a nice stack of oddball packs from Fuji that arrived the day after Christmas. Even though most of the packs came out during the late '80s/early '90s, it was all stuff I have never opened. Oddball packs were not on my radar during that time.

Fuji also sent me a note with a thought on when I might open these:

Happy Holidays to you, too, Fuji.

I'm not sure whether he meant "snow day" as in those days that school kids and teachers enjoy while the rest of us clear off a foot of snow and trudge to work, or just days in which there is heavy snow. But either way, there is no way I can save unopened packs for a day of bad weather, no matter how frequently it happens around here.

Unopened packs must be opened. Period. ASAP.

And I have opened them. All of them. If it makes you feel any better, it actually is snowing right now.

I'm going to reveal the contents of these packs in order, ranking them from the packs I was least interested in (this is a relative term, of course I was interested in them all) to the ones for which I had the greatest interest.

Let's begin:

1988 Topps Yearbook Stickers

The title of these leads me to believe there was yearbook for these stickers. I'm sure there was information on the wrapper, but I threw it away because of some slight repulsion over the broken-up brown gum mixture inside the wrapper.

Here are the stickercards:

The shiny silver sticker of who I believe is George Bell got the worst of the broken-up brown gum mixture.

There a couple of reasons why these stickers frustrate me. First, yellow borders are the worst. Second, there is no identification with these stickers. They are really testing my knowledge of late 1980s Indians. (Pat Tabler! Of course!).

Also, since I never liked the looks of the stickers, I preferred the reverse side of the card as far as what should be shown. But it's obvious that wasn't the intent, because:

Frank White in triplicate.

1988 Topps Big Baseball

Here is the debut of Big Baseball. I don't know which of the three sets (1988, 1989, 1990) is more plentiful, but I've definitely seen more of the '88 cards.

Here is what was inside (although you probably already know that Gordon Craig Reynolds is one of the cards):

The 7th card was a checklist and therefore not a "picture card" as advertised on the wrapper.

Not the most exciting lot, and I have the John Shelby already. I guess Mike Greenwell and Mike Henneman were key pulls at the time.

1992 Fleer The Performer

Woooooo! Who's ready for some pistachio green borders!! The 7-Eleven and Citgo logos are on the backs of these cards, which irks me. Get those things out front if you're going to be an oddball!

Pllease note the printing across the bottom. Particularly, "Contains 5". Commit that to memory.

The cards for pack one:

This set is much more focused on superstars, and I would like to add that I am trying to get rid of Will Clark cards, not gain more of them.

The cards for pack two:

One, Two, Three, Four, Fi .... uh, where's No. 5?

I've been gypped a Performer!

I'll bet this is the reason I haven't seen a Citgo or a 7-Eleven in ages.

1995 Upper Deck Denny's

Just one card per pack, but you get holographic action. I was looking forward to opening these.

Pack One:

Very nice. I'm happy with that card. The hologram is a bit disturbing.

Here is a set that I've ignored for quite awhile. It's a 40-card collection composed of 8 sets with no Dodgers, so why should I care? You can't fit a Dodger into one of 8 different sets?

But I do like the fat, colorful, basic borders, so let's open it up:

Pretty. There are two players that Fuji collects in this pack. I hope he has them already.

There was also a poster offer with this set. I miss the special offers on wrappers and the like. Now all you get is legal information.

Speaking of special offers, here are the offers on the packs that I wanted to open the most. Wouldn't it be great if a card blogger had sent their photo in for these personal star stickers and then kept them and showed them on their blog? That would be hilarious.

1987 Fleer Star Stickers

This is something I would have definitely bought if I saw them in 1987. Even with my limited pack purchasing that year, if something like this was on the checkout counter, I'd grab it at least once.

Here are the cards within:

Not much star power there.

This is the sticker card I received. It predicts the 2010 World Series.

On the reverse: Your 1985/2015 World Champions.

Let's move on to the year before:

I love this wrapper.

Cards:

That is a much more exciting group. This is my favorite pack out of the ones I opened from Fuji.

I even got a Dodger sticker. I have a few of these around. It's about time I stuck one.

That's the Famous Feats drawing on the reverse. Yup, these cards/stickers are the hit of the lot.

And now they're all opened. Like packs should be.

Sure, I don't have any packs now to open when the snow hits again. Guess I'll just have to go out and buy some reinforcements.

I remembered your "punch in the mouth", "foot of snow post" from earlier in the month. Honestly... I had no idea what to get you, because it seems like you own every Dodger card that has ever existed... so I turned to oddball packs. Happy holidays!

Mark Clear always wore his stirrups with a minimum of sanitary sock showing. It went well with his droopy mustache and his ridiculous curve ball, which seemed to have more late drop on it than any pitch in my memory. Fun stuff!